I wish I could turn in papers and homework on a cheap e-reader instead of printing it...

Took me a long time to warm up to the idea of e-books...just couldn't see how staring at a screen for so long could be good...after all we are told that staring at the computer screen is not good.

Then I was given a Kindle HD Fire as a present....now I love reading books on it. (Also love watching movies and playing games on it) Still have quite a few actual books in my home, but haven't bought one for quite a while. One good thing about real books is that they don't run out of battery power and have to be recharged.

Real. Spend enough time infront of a screen so reading is a nice break from that.

Just an FYI: reading on an e-ink screen is virtually identical to reading on paper. They reflect natural light, instead of beaming it into your face, reducing the eyestrain and problems normally associated with backlit displays.

Its them magnetic spheres.

E books seem pretty good but I don't care for them. I guess its nice to have options besides just actuall books. Though I don't know why people would relie on a handheld device that runs on batteries? My hate for Batteries go all the way to the gameboy scrounging around looking for two more batteries to get my fix of pokemon!

Good to know, thanks.

Well, say you're in college, and instead of lugging 6 books and supplies from class to class, you lug a tablet and almost nothing else. Say you had a fire and all your books burnt up; backed up E-books means you'd still have your library safely stored somewhere else. Say you fly a lot...well, you get the idea. There are numerous reasons why E-books will become standard in the near future.

Both, of course. I prefer real books, too, mostly because I read a lot of history books and like to underline and scribble in the margins. Writing is how I process, not reading. If there were a tablet with an easy-to-use note-taking capability, I would just as soon do this on a device, if I could upload the notes somewhere where they wouldn't be lost. The main disadvantage of paper books is they take up space and are a pain (literally) to pack up when you have to move.

Also the convenience of e-books is sometimes a draw when all I want is a quick read. Prices are increasing, so price advantage is disappearing, and books being DRM-locked is a huge disadvantage.

I like reading real books & newspapers. But I've also been reading amateur fiction & other things online for decades, so I don't have anything particular against that medium either.

One thing I will say for paper books - with moderately careful storage, that book can still be there, readable, decades or centuries from now. (Just like people's photographs, actual-physical-groove recordings, paint-on-canvas art, paper letters written between world leaders/soldier & their families/etc...). All this digital stuff is so fragile in comparison. No electricity? Screwed. No access to the old operating systems or media drives? Screwed. Etc, etc, etc. All the videos, digital pictures, emails, diaries that people are making now? How much of it will still be here in 100 or 200 years? Compared to how much stuff we have from a similar amount of time in our past?

I prefer to have both, especially with the addition of my Kindle (passed to me from my grandpa).. I have more physical books than I do ebooks but now and then I use my Kindle. Sooner or later, I'll have to have my Kindle replaced because it's starting to show its age but I don't know when I'll get it.. my dad told me I can simply transfer all my data to the new one when I get it, so I'll likely be getting a new one when it can be afforded.

Since digital content is easily and cheaply copied, there's a very good chance it wall all be here centuries from now. The one drawback of course is DRM, but companies like Google and Amazon are actively battling that, as are many libraries.

I agree. A book is something to read. An Ebook is something to browse.

That being said, I do prefer online subscriptions to magazines. Simply for the reason that I am one who does not throw out magazines (until I have to). Most magazines that I subscribe to online have online archives of their older editions, so I don't have to keep a huge pile anymore.

Say your ebook gets hit by lightning all your books puff gone! Say a hurricane hits and power to half the state won't be available for at least to weeks and your ebook runs out of Batteries! Your back to using regular books. Say a giant emp bomb goes off frying All eletrical devices your ebook is just a fancy paper weight now. Say aliens come from the planet gleep gloop and start a war for no freaking reason at all making the planet a waste land and 70% of the population extinct! Were is your ebook now?!

Just wanted to point out that modern books will NOT last centuries. A few decades (like 4-7 decades), yes, but definitely not centuries.

The main difference between modern books and old books is the quality of paper and ink used. Modern books use extremely acidic paper, which doesn't last very long and the ink over time reacts to both the paper acidity and light to make it fad very fast. Modern books literally fall apart after a few decades, and even with careful care won't last centuries.

What if the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pie?

Er, most people buy ebooks through an account which is the equivalent of cloud storage. So the answer to your question is, you buy a new device and re-download them. For PDFs and free e-books, you back up your hard drive the same way as you would for anything else you don't want to lose.

Having to keep your battery stocked is a necessity of course, but e-books can't be beat for convenience. I used to live overseas but don't travel much anymore. On recent trip overseas, I was thinking how different my travel would have been in the past if I'd had an e-reader and could take a whole library with me in one slim case. Of course, you have to get it through security, who hand-inspects e-readers just like they do laptops.

the moon must be dealt with!

I wonder how long Easton Press books will last.

Or likewise the Folio Society, of which I have a fair few. I'd guess being made of better quality bindings they should last quite a while, however long that is.

I think the hurricane is the most likely to happen then the others Scenerios I mentioned. There is no power in your area for weeks. I would just shut off my ebook untill the power comes back in the mean time I would read a redular book. I'm just a little concerned at how dependent we are of technology.

Heh, when I found out about Kindles I'd always assumed they worked the same way a laptop screen does. And then when I saw one for real I bought one the next week.

Been using mine for two years now, it's far easier to manipulate than a real book, and kindle books are often a lot cheaper than real ones.

And there's the benefit of being able to read everything on project Gutenberg without staring at an LCD monitor.

According to Wikipedia, it looks like they use premium acid-neutral paper, and probably better ink too. So their books should last quite some time.

Books printed on acid-neutral paper will include the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Acid-free_paper_(symbol).svg.

e-reader batteries last a very long time because of the low power draw of e-ink (one of the selling points).

There's also cool things like http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/24/eton-announces-boost-line-hand-crank-chargers/

An EMP also doesn't magically fry all electronics. Assuming your device is in the kill range of an EMP blast, it still needs to be drawing power to risk permanent damage as well as have enough unshielded wiring to induce a current.

It's copied, somewhere else. This is why conservatories are copying ancient manuscripts for posterity, in digital form. Don't be angry dude, I'm just discussing this.

Thank you. The damn iPad, Kindle Fire, and Nook Color have people thinking that e-reader screens are like computer monitors. They are not.

Proper e-readers are e-ink screens and look like ink on paper. If you're like me and you don't like reading on LCD screens you should really try out an e-ink screen before you write off e-books. Years ago I didn't like the idea of e-books either...then I used my uncle's Kindle and realized that e-ink was the game-changer. Bought an e-ink reader immediately after and never looked back.

As has been said, e-ink reader batteries can last for a month or more without needing a charge.

I had the same experience. Not to mention that there are a ton of legally free e-books out there. I was really surprised to see how many classic novels are free. It's like carrying a 7 ounce library around. Plus, there are tools (like Calibre and Amazon's own conversion service) that will convert documents from a variety of formats to one that paginates correctly on an e-reader.

The results of those studies are all over the place, and many of them were conducted using dated technology. At any rate, for every one of those studies that claims to support the idea that electronic media doesn't stick in the brain goo as well there's another that claims to show that there's no difference. Perhaps it has something to do with what you're used to. I wouldn't be surprised if people that are exposed to electronic media at a younger age take to it more easily.